Edigami!
by Battypichugirl2
Summary: Bleach/FMA crossover. An alchemic experiment goes awry, sending the FMA characters through the Gate to...modern-day Japan? At the same time, experiments on Hollows in Soul Society cause a rift between the human and spirit worlds... No pairings. Please R
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: -sighs- Writing disclaimers is tedious. I don't own either Bleach or FMA.**

**A/N: Despite the title, I'm not sure if Ed's going to become a Soul Reaper/Shinigami in this story. One thing you'll learn about me from my story titles is that I have a thing for bad puns. I grew up watching Pokemon, all their episode titles have puns in them, don't judge! xD Though, _do_ judge my actual story! -hinthint- Originally this was going to be about the FMA cast being enrolled in the Soul Reaper academy, but it turned into something completely different. Anyway. Enjoy!**

The first thing he was aware of was darkness. The darkness wrapped around his mind and body like a fine mist, obstructing his vision and clouding his thoughts. The man's eyes were still closed; he was conscious enough to be aware of it, but not enough yet to open them.

The second thing he was aware of was that he was lying on something soft...His mind was still in somewhat of a haze but nevertheless, his awareness was steadily increasing. He soon also realized that when he had lost consciousness, he hadn't landed on something soft.

Someone had taken him here, but for now, the important question was where was _here_? A soft groan escaped as he tried to shake off the haziness that was fogging up his mind and making his body feel as heavy as lead.

A few rays of light fell on his face through the gaps in the drawn curtains, illuminating the x-shaped scar on the man's tan face. The man groaned again and tried to move away from the bright sunlight, but it succeeded in awakening him nonetheless. His eyelids fluttered open and crimson eyes scanned the area around him. Bookshelves, a desk, a drawer...a bed. The bed he was lying on...he was in someone's--someone much younger than him from the looks of it--room. But whose? And why was he there? Eyes traveled back to the bed he was lying in. His skin tone contrasted vividly with the white sheets of the bed, as well as the bandages wrapped around his chest. Wait, bandages? Was...was he injured? He didn't feel any pain...

His eyes closed again in exhaustion, and his consciousness faded once again into he darkness.

--

He could hear footsteps. Two pairs of them--quiet, as if to keep from waking him up.

"Do you think he's gonna be all right?" one of them asked quietly.  
"I dunno. Dad said he would be, probably..."

The voices were clearly female, and though he wasn't nearly conscious enough to so much as estimate their ages, the relatively high pitches suggested that they were young.

As the voices and the footsteps got closer, his strength seemed to return somewhat. This time he definitely felt pain, however. It was only a dull, throbbing ache in his chest, but he felt it nonetheless. Something cold and wet pressed against his forehead, and finally, he had to ask, despite not knowing who would answer or if he'd get an answer at all.

"Wh-Where...where...am I?" the voice sounded dry and cracked--utterly strengthless.

The two girls seemed taken slightly aback. "Oh, he's awake..." one of them commented. The other took the liberty of answering the question. "You're in our brother Ichigo's room. We thought it'd be better to put you up here than drag you into the clinic part of our house the way you were bleeding."

He nodded vaguely, eyes opening again and settling on the two girls. They were about the same height and age, from what he could see, but one had black hair while the other had a golden-blond tint to hers. "Who...are you?" he asked, trying to sit up. The pain suddenly became acute as he attempted to do so, and he quickly lay back down, panting slightly.

"Don't do that, you idiot! You'll open them again!" the black-haired one cried after making sure he hadn't done any damage to himself, "Anyway, I'm Karin Kurosaki, and that's is my sister, Yuzu."

Before he could say any more, the other piped in with her two cents. "Oh! Ichigo told us to tell him when he woke up!" With that, the one with the lighter hair color scurried out of the room. The Ishbalan barely had enough time to think that those were very odd names when the girl walked back in, a much taller, orange-haired man following behind her.

"Glad to see you're finally awake. You had us worried for a while last night..."

The scarred man was still trying to figure out what was going on. "Where am I?" he repeated to Ichigo.

"Our house--"

"No, I mean _where_...?"

"Karakura Town; where the hell else would you be?"

Scar's eyes widened in fear. When had he left Central?! He remembered now; the last thing he saw before passing out was the front door of a building with strange looking symbols on it. How had he gotten there? Was he the only one in Central this had happened to? "What...country is that in?" He still clung to some hope that he was still in Amestris.

The orange-haired man gave him an odd look. Japan was an island nation (well, a series of islands, anyway)--how could he have any confusion on the matter? The teenager decided not to put too much thought into the matter.

"Should've asked Dad if he had a concussion or something..." he mused. Then to Scar, "Japan, obviously. Where did you think you were?"

The injured man said nothing for several long moments. "H-how? This isn't--it isn't Amestris?!"

"The hell is that? I don't know what you're talking about." Sure, Ichigo might not have been the best at remembering names or faces, but he was certain that he had never heard of such a country in his life.

As the Ishbalan stared at him, dumbstruck, for several more moments, Ichigo scowled at him. "You sure you're feeling all right, old man? This is Japan...we're on an island. I'm not really sure how you could confuse it with another country..."

The 'old man' remark was completely passed over in the frightened man's mind, and he instinctively sat up, ignoring the pain, and started to get up and stagger towards the door. It was force of habit that drove him to attempt to leave; generally it had always been a bad idea to stay in one place for too long--it made it easy to locate him.

"You idiot, stop! You're gonna open up all your goddamned wounds!" he shouted as he followed the fool.

Scar made it to the first step on the stairway before his knees buckled, and he fell, tumbling down the flight of stairs.

"Damn you, idiot," Ichigo growled under his breath as he hurried down the stairs after the wounded man. This was going to be a long day...


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Whooo. In two and a half days, I already got 58 hits! From all over the world, too. Thanks so much for reading my story, people! Reviews are love, by the way. -coughhinthintcough- They get me all excited. Anyway, as it says in the summary, the FMA cast got sent through the Gate into Karakura Town, so...for the purposes of the plot, all the FMA characters can see hollows and Soul Reapers not in gigai (gigae?). Yes, the fact that they went through the Gate is my rationale for that. -dashes off to get dump truck to fill in plot hole with cement-**

"Ugh. My head..." A man, clad in blue, groaned as he rubbed the back of his head. "Where the hell am I?" He sat up and looked around. And what he saw...was a lush green park with trees and flowers and young children playing, rather than the drab gray that dominated the streets of Central. He also noticed that most everyone here had black or dark brown hair. Sure, that was his own hair color, but there was usually a lot more variation in Amestris... He was starting to get the distinct feeling he was not where he had been earlier that morning.

The colonel distinctly remembered an earthquake of some sort taking place when he was back at the office; maybe that was when he had ended up here? The Flame Alchemist scanned the area, searching for some sign of someone he recognized. "Lieutenant Hawkeye? Lieutenant Havoc?" he called, straining his ears for some sort of reply, his eyes for any trace of the two sharpshooters. All that answered him was the wind...he was all alone now.

Deciding that trying to get his bearings straight would be far preferable than sitting on the grass in some unknown park feeling sorry for himself, Mustang got up and started walking around. The first thing that caught his eye was the sign at the exit of the park. What...language was that it written in? He couldn't even recognize the characters; they just looked like squiggles to him--not your basic ABC's. The alchemist got the feeling that he was suddenly very far removed from Amestris...

But no, he wouldn't panic. There was no reason to panic. Come on, he was a _war veteran_. He had been to _Ishbal_. Roy was NOT going to get worked up about being temporarily lost. All he'd have to do was go and ask someone where he was and how he could get back to Central. That should be easy enough. He went around to some of the kids in the park, asking them if they knew which way it was to Central, but he just got some rather odd looks from the children, some of which then backed away carefully from whom they assumed was a crazy person. But they were just children, yes? There was no reason to worry. They probably hadn't heard of other cities much yet. That probably meant that he was rather far from Central, but that was okay. He didn't mind. After he found out which way he had to go, he'd get directions to the nearest train station.

Strangely enough, the teenagers he talked to didn't seem to recognize a 'Central City' either. Neither did any of the adults...Sheesh, how isolated was this 'Karakura Town' anyway?!

Just as the colonel was starting to get a bit disheartened and was planning to temporarily suspend his search in favor of getting something to eat, he heard a rather loud, shrill howl. And when Mustang whirled to find the source of the ungodly noise, he wished he hadn't. Before him was the largest, most grotesque monstrosity he had ever seen. Its body was completely black, with a massive hole in its torso where a normal creature's vital organs would be. It had tiny, stubby arms, but enormous legs with feet that were turned outward and had only four toes. This was in stark contrast to the head, which was pure white, except for the eyes, which were two black circles with smaller, red circles inside. The head was absurdly shaped, too. It looked almost like an hourglass, drawing particular attention to the mouth, with it's massive, square teeth.

Wait a second, its mouth was open, and it appeared to be flying (hold on, flying?!)  
straight towards him with a velocity that seemed impossible for something its size...  
Mustang's eyes dilated to almost twice their normal size when realization dawned on him: _That _thing_ is going to_ eat_ me!!_ He opened his mouth to curse as he rapidly spun on his heels and started to run, but no sound came out at all. His vocal chords refused to cooperate. The colonel tore down the streets, terror spread across his face as the creature appeared to be gaining on him. If he hadn't been fleeing for his life, he might have noticed the odd fact that no one else had even so much as turned their head in that direction. Roy continued sprinting away from the creature that seemed to have found his (her? He didn't know, nor did he care to at this point) dinner plans in the colonel, when he saw an alleyway up ahead. The colonel veered into it as quickly as possible, adopting the tactic Scar had so often used to elude his men, but would soon find himself regretting the decision. Almost as soon as he had entered, Roy saw to his horror that the alley was a dead end.

This wouldn't have been a problem for someone like Ed, who could just transmute a hole in the wall without drawing a circle, or Scar, who could use his right arm to blow up the wall, but...wait. Why in the hell was he running for?! He was the Flame Alchemist, after all. Roy spun on his heels once again, raising his hand into his signature attack position and snapped. One second passed, two, and nothing happened. Roy snapped a few more times. Nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing, noth--why wasn't it working?! All right, _now_ he would panic. Onyx eyes scanned the alleyway from top to bottom, looking for something--anything--he could use to get away. He backed away, walking, walking, walking...until his back hit the wall. Colonel Roy Mustang, the great Flame Alchemist was cornered. Cornered alone in a small, dingy alley in a town he didn't recognize...

**A/N: -gasp- What will happen to Roy? Mwahaha, I'm going to let this sit for a few days and update other things to build the suspense. Because I'm evil like that. :K**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: First of all, Happy Thanksgiving! (In case I don't finish my Thanksgiving story on time--which is likely, at the rate I'm going. -.- -epic fail- )**

**Secondly! To all the people waiting on this story, I'm so so so so SOOOO sorry this chapter is so late! Life has just been opposed to my fanfic writing--I've been juggling four internships and volunteer activities (which are all during the school week so I have the weekend to work on college applications) and my schedule has been just CRAZY. School hasn't been all too kind either; I had SEVEN tests one week! That's more tests than school days! The average tests per week is running something closer to three, and it's just been AHHHH keeping up with both my AP and regular classes and college apps and my extracurriculars. I've been working on this chapter for over a month now, and finally got a chance to really sit down with it this week since I'm on break. BUT. On the bright side, at about the end of January, everything will be much much calmer and I'll have plenty of time to work on writing. Expect to see a lot of updates on "The Bonds Between Them," too--it's now part of an "personal goals" assignment for my writing class. ^_^  
**

Mustang's heart pounded harder and harder as he faced down the monster with designs on his life before him. Widened onyx eyes continuously scanned the desolate alley for an opening, a way out, but found none. The monster's deafening roar echoed in his ears, so loud he felt his eardrums might just burst from the strain. It was flying straight at him, grotesquely large, prominent jaw wide open, a sickening gleam in its red eyes as it dove in for the kill. Ishbalan eyes had never been quite so menacing as those... Finally, Mustang could bear looking into them no longer, and his own dark eyes squeezed shut as he prepared himself for certain death.

...But the deadly attack never came. He waited a few more seconds, but the excruciating pain he expected to feel when the monstrous jaws made contact with his person still did not come. Finally, he decided to venture a look. He tentatively opened one eye. And...the monster wasn't there. He opened his other eye and scanned the immediate area. It was just _gone_. And in its place was what appeared to be an ordinary teenage boy. He had short-ish black hair and wore glasses. His clothes were simple and rather formal" a white shirt with a tie and gray pants.

"A-Are...you the one who--"

"Hold that thought!" the boy interrupted. As he did so, he held out his left arm at an angle facing the sky. His right quickly moved to it, and suddenly a bow and arrow made of blue light appeared. The teenager pulled back on the "arrow," and released, and the blue light shot upwards. Before Mustang could say a thing, he had repeated the process. Onyx eyes flitted up to see two creatures that looked eerily similar to the ones that had attacked him. They disintegrated as soon as the arrows of light hit them.

Mustang just gaped at him. He was so _young_ to be such a skilled archer. And...those certainly didn't look like normal arrows. Not to mention he'd pulled the weapon literally out of thin air...Who used a bow and arrow anymore these days anyway? Wasn't it sort of a dated weapon? So many questions...

"Damn, that's the twelfth one this week," the teenager grumbled as the weapon disappeared, "And that's not even counting the ones Ichigo killed. What the hell are those lazy bastards in Soul Society _doing_ that's so important that we have to take care of things by ourselves here?!"

Mustang didn't even bother trying to comprehend the second part of the boy's mini rant, too focused on the fact that more than twelve of those horrible things had come to this place in just a week. The inhabitants of the town must have had nerves of steel not to be panicking wildly about them.

"So you mean _twelve_ of those awful creatures attacked the town this week?" he parroted, incredulous, "Does this kind of thing always happen?"

"It's actually a fairly common occurrence. But there's been more than usual and it's irritating." He sighed and pushed his glasses up his nose a bit. "But anyway, are you all right sir?"

The colonel was honestly still a bit shaken up from the incident, but he hastily nodded. "I'm fine. Still lost, but fine." He smiled a bit, and extended a gloved hand. "The name's Roy Mustang. Thanks again for saving my life.

The teenager quirked a brow, but didn't comment, simply answering, "No problem. Uryu Ishida--it's a pleasure."

Mustang shook his hand, but now it was his turn to raise an eyebrow. "That's an...interesting name."

An ugly scowl crossed the Quincy's features. "Is there a problem?"

"N-no," he quickly amended, "No problem. It's just...a bit unusual, is all." Strike two.

Uryu twitched. "What's so unusual about it?" he spat, "It's not like yours is the paragon of normalcy--it's not even Japanese."

"What?"

"I said 'it's not even Japanese'; are you deaf, sir?"

A pause. And then, "What...is Japanese?"

"Of Japan, you imbecile."

The Flame Alchemist blinked. He was a bit miffed by the "imbecile" comment, but he supposed Equivalent Exchange applied to insults too, even though his poorly-chosen words hadn't been intended to offend Uryu.

"Japan?"

Uryu by now pieced together the fact that this "Roy Mustang" was a foreigner, but...they were on an _island_. One didn't just wander into Japan without knowing where they were. Unless maybe he was a shipwrecked sailor of some sort. He certainly didn't look the part, but he could be in a foreign navy or something, Uryu supposed.

"So, I'm assuming you're a sailor of some sort. Where are you from?"

"Um, no. I'm not. But...uh, I'm a...a soldier--a colonel--from Amestris."

"Never heard of it," Uryu replied, shaking his head.

"No one here has, apparently," the colonel responded with a sigh. "I was asking around when that _thing_ attacked me." Silence reigned for a few moments until the colonel thought of something all of a sudden. "You...mentioned that those monster attacks were common. Are the people here just used to it or something?"

The Quincy's face shifted into something like a smirk at the question. "The people here don't even know they exist." The smirk deepened at Mustang's obvious confusion. "I'm a bit surprised _you_ can see them, actually...you don't seem to have any high level of spiritual pressure." Even more confusion bloomed on the elder man's face, and Uryu shook his head and quickly added, "A hollow is a spirit being, see. Most ordinary humans aren't in tune enough with the spirit world to see hollows...which is why it's a damn pain in the ass when Ichigo and Chad and I have to do it by ourselves when the Soul Society doesn't do its damned job." That last remark was said with a bit of a grumble.

Still more confusion. Roy had considered himself an "ordinary human" up to this point. An exceptional alchemist and colonel, perhaps, he thought indulgently, but still...

The Quincy simply sighed and pushed his glasses up his nose a bit. "I'm sure my friends and I can answer your questions at length later," he finally said, a tired note to his voice. "But I'm guessing you're going to need a place to stay while you're here?"

The colonel opened his mouth to protest that he needed to find his way back to Central as soon as possible, but quickly thought better of it, and nodded. As fruitless as his search for someone who even knew where Central was had been thus far, it would be wise to have a place to stay if he was going to be stranded here for any length of time.

"Follow me, then." As he started to walk away, a small smirk crossed the Quincy's features again as he prepared to foist the older man off on Ichigo rather than deal with him himself. The pair walked in silence for a few minutes, and then Mustang spoke up again.

"Uh, Uryu, right?"  
The other boy nodded.

"Well..." The colonel hesitated slightly, not wanting to antagonize the boy again. "Shouldn't...you be in school or something?"

The Quincy just stared at him. "It's Saturday."

"Oh." What? The last he remembered, it had been Friday back at Central...odd, but he supposed he had simply been knocked out for the full night when he had ended up in this strange new place.

"Whatever. Anyway, we're here," Uryu said, pointing at the rather large building before them. Karakura Clinic was, after all, both a house and a medical clinic in one. Deciding to save any further questions for later, Mustang silently followed the teenager as the duo made their way to the house-clinic, and waited a few feet behind Uryu as he knocked on the door.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Woooooowwwww. Six new alerts in less than a day! I am truly in awe! Thank you guys soooooooo much for reading my story! ^_^ Since I took so long to update last time, I wanted to get out another new chapter as quickly as possible. :33 I'd still love to be able to thank you guys personally for reading, so please, please review!!**

It took a few minutes for the orange-haired man to catch up to the fallen Ishbalan, who was by now sprawled and bleeding over the edge of the carpet. Damn it, it would take forever for those stains to come out...

Ichigo was no sincerely regretting his request to his sisters to be notified as soon as the strange, scarred man awakened. So far, not only did he seem to be insane and/or delusional, but he seemed to have no idea the extent of his injuries and was stupid enough to try to leave in his condition.

"Hey, are you all right? What were you _thinking_ trying to leave like that?!" But the Ishbalan seemed too out of it to answer or even respond in a way that would let Ichigo know that he had registered what he had said.

_Damn it. What'm I gonna do now?_

He supposed the first thing would be to get the scarred man back to his bed. Then he could try to figure out who he was, and what was going on... The substitute soul reaper slipped an arm under Scar's back, and used the other arm to begin to pull the injured man's arm over his shoulder when the "substitute soul reaper" badge he carried started buzzing, signaling the presence of a new hollow.

"Wha..oh, _hell._" Fighting hollows clearly took precedence over helping the injured man, but he was currently in a very awkward position, what with needing to get out of his body to fight, but having the Ishbalan on his back...

And then all of a sudden, the badge stopped buzzing. His eyes traveled down to the object and he breathed a sigh of relief--Uryu or Chad must have killed it for him. _Thanks, guys._ But as the saying went, there was no rest for the wicked, as almost immediately afterwards, the knock on the door sounded.

"Damn."

Ichigo cursed at the absolutely terrible timing of that knock. "Come in!" he called, before realizing that he was too far away from the door for the knocker to hear him. Ugh, this was awkward--he had an unconscious man quasi-draped over his shoulder, someone at the door, and his sisters probably occupied with mending the strange man's clothes and getting the bloodstains out of the sheets....

Heaving a deep sigh, he lifted the injured man up a little higher until he was slumped over the stairway railing, hoping fervently that the man wouldn't fall. _This had better be important_ he growled to himself as he made his way to the door, still a little miffed over the inconvenience of the circumstances.

Goddamn it, if this was that Keigo Asano again coming to prattle on about whatever new 'hot girl' that was his 'soulmate' and totally had a crush on him, he'd tear the annoying teen's head clear off. Just the thought of seeing that idiot grin at such a bad time was enough to make Ichigo's blood almost boil with frustration. Especially considering that the boy had come for the exact reason he was imagining only two hours ago. Sure they were friends, but it wouldn't change a thing if he was coming for any reason other than being in mortal danger.

"KEIGO, IF THAT'S YOU, YOU HAD BETTER HOPE THAT--oh," Ichigo nearly roared as he swung open the door.

The substitute soul reaper's face adopted a sheepish grin when he saw not the inane brunette he was used to knocking on his door at inconvenient times, but his friend Uryu...and an older man with raven hair in a blue jacket covered with shiny buttons and badges.

"Uhh, sorry for yelling like that, Uryu; I thought it was Keigo at the door," he explained.

"No problem, Ichigo. I know just how...annoying Asano can be."

"Come on in--this is kind of a bad time, so if you could just sit down for a moment--" he was cut off by a glance over his shoulder that showed the Ishbalan having pulled himself off the railing and attempting to stagger towards the couch.

"You stupid bastard!! What the hell part of 'you're injured' don't you get?!" he shouted back at him before quickly turning back to Uryu, having forgotten all about the other man at the door.

"Uhh. I'm sorry, Uryu, really. I didn't expect that guy to be such a _moron_."

The Quincy couldn't help but chuckle at his friend's flustered expression, and simply waved his hand in a gesture that he didn't mind as Ichigo ran back to deal with the injured man. Then he turned to Mustang.

"Come on--I'm sure Ichigo wouldn't mind putting you up here for a few days," he remarked, a devious glint in his eye. If Ichigo _did_ mind, he'd just have to deal with it.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Holy. Shit. I cannot believe how long it has been since I updated this. I apologize profusely--I have had terrible block on this story for quite some time, and today was the first day in ages I've been inspired to continue it. I have the next chapter planned out though, and I'm hoping to post that sometime within the week. Once again, I am terribly sorry for making everyone who's been reading this wait so long. x.x;; Thanks for reading!**

"I've never seen anything like it, have you, Tessai?"

"Neither have I. It's absolutely remarkable."

"Fascinating. It's almost like a gigai…yet different, but I can't quite place it…"

A soft sigh could be heard then as the two men continued to marvel over him. "I'm not _that_ fascinating, really I'm not. Couldn't you guys do something else for a while—it's…_weird_ sitting with my head off like this."

Al knew he should have seen something like this coming when that nice blonde man with the hat and clogs offered them a place to stay until they could get back home. He knew that the thorny issue of eating would come up eventually, but he had hoped that the excuse that he wasn't hungry would have sufficed. Pretending to eat usually fooled other hosts, though—but this Urahara apparently was sharper than those other hosts, and noticed that when he lifted the helmet that slight bit, there was no head underneath to receive the food…

He had expected there to be screaming and panicking, but instead…he now felt like a specimen under a microscope.

"Oh trust me, my friend. You're the most interesting fellow this ol' merchant has seen in a _while._" There was a gleam in the blonde man's eyes that Al wasn't quite sure he was comfortable with.

"Hey, leave him alone, would you?" a fourth voice grumbled through a mouthful of the rice he was currently eating, "This isn't exactly something a whole lot of people know about, and he—well, neither of us is all too comfortable with it being so…out in the open and all."

Urahara turned to the other blonde in the room, sitting next to the current object of his fascination.

"You said you're the one that made this, right?"

He finished the mouthful and then put the bowl down for the moment. "I didn't make the armor, but that's right—I'm the one that attached his soul to it."

The blonde man gave Alphonse another appraising glance over his shoulder, and then knelt down in front of the other blonde teenager, ruffling his hair a bit with a grin.

"That's pretty impressive for a little kid—"

"I'm not little!" he shouted, swatting at Urahara's hand, "And I'm not a kid, either."

Urahara chuckled a bit at the younger boy's indignation, but let it go at that. "Still, it's impressive—I've been making gigais for a long time, and I've never seen anything quite like that. You could never tell it was any different from an ordinary human soul without that helmet being taken off. It's fascinating, to say the least."

The older Elric brother scowled a bit and looked away to the side. "It's still nothing compared to the real deal."

"Um…can I put my helmet back on now, please?"

"Yeah, sure kid, just give me one more sec…" the elder man stood and walked over the corner where his cane was leaning against and brought it back to the animated suit of armor.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, you bastard?!" Amber eyes had widened as he saw the cane raised and pointed toward the blood-seal, and a gloved metallic fist was aimed at the merchant. "If you break that seal he'll die!"

The elder man stopped his fist with one hand and gave the seal a little shove. "Relax, he's fine, see?" Urahara told him, pointing his cane forward, but even as he did, an eyebrow rose.

"Master Urahara…"

"Well, I'll be!" he exclaimed, rapping the armor with his knuckles, "Here I was thinking that this was just a _vessel_ for your soul, but your chain of fate is still attached! This is really your body, innit?"

Alphonse was looking just a bit freaked out at the idea of being able to look at his "body" from outside, so Edward, tearing his eyes from Alphonse who looked just as he had all those years ago before their human transmutation for just a moment, answered for him.

"It won't be for long," he answered determinedly, "I will get him back his real body. I _will_."

Urahara was surprised at both the teen's vehemence and his words, but it lasted only a moment before he slipped back into that easy grin of his. "Easy, kid," he said, giving the boy's shoulders a pat, "Nobody said you wouldn't."

The tension in the air lasted a good minute or two before a familiar, cheery voice rang in the air.

"Wow, Al, so that's what you really look like? You're adorable!"

"Hughes!" the Elrics chirped as the lieutenant colonel came in from the other room, arm in a sling and Ururu following meekly behind him. Al flushed a little at being called adorable and Ed just grinned at him.

"How's your arm, Hughes?" Al asked him after a moment.

"Actually pretty good—I dunno what she did, but it doesn't hurt anymore. It's broken, though, apparently."

Urahara chuckled. "Kido isn't quite Ururu's strong point, Mr. Hughes. But Tessai can fix that up for you later if you like. We have a few things to attend to first, however."

As if on cue, the door of the Urahara shop opened with the bells on the top giving their signature jingle.

"Speaking of which…"

"Kisuke! I found two more of them." The young woman who had walked into the store gestured to the two unconscious bodies draped over her shoulder, both in the same navy uniform Hughes was wearing.

"More of them, huh?" he asked in a deadpan tone, "This is getting to be a real mess, isn't it? Set them over there for now." The merchant gestured to where Ed, Al, and Hughes were sitting. His voice became dead serious then. "Listen, Yoruichi, I know you just got back, but I'm going to need you to go get Ichigo and his friends over here."

"Understood." She set the two soldiers down, and disappeared in a flash, gone almost as quickly as she had arrived.

"Who was that just now?" Ed demanded, suddenly suspicious of this blonde merchant all over again, "Who's this 'Ichigo' person, and why—"

Urahara turned over his shoulder to glance at them, all trace of joking and levity suddenly gone. "I know you're all probably looking for an explanation, and I'll be happy to give one, but you're going to have to wait for a bit, because there are a couple more people who need to hear it."

He turned around fully and gestured at Al. "Al, wasn't it? You're free to go back into your body whenever you like. Just walk right back in—your soul and body will re-fuse without a hitch."

And then the man turned back around and headed to the door, the jingling sounding again as it was pushed open. "I need to get some things ready. Stay in here with Tessai and wait for Yoruichi to get back."


End file.
